Friday, October 14, 2011

STEPPING FORWARD.................

I kind of find it strange that I don’t find time to update my blog these days, for reasons even I can’t seem to come to terms with. I have no reason or argument at all, even if there should be one to say in my favour, so sincerely speaking I have never been as clueless as I am right now. So now getting back on track let’s see how times have changed since the last time I updated my blog, damn I don’t even remember when that was last, it’s kind of embarrassing, but well I guess that’s the truth so I may very well accept it with as much grace I possibly could. A few things over the course of the last month have changed the way I see things radically, almost sending it spinning off into a new direction, in my earlier posts I have gone so GA GA over my job, well the best part is that the energy and the zeal is still intact, I WILL NOT BE BROKEN SO EASILY, something I keep reminding myself all the time. Now onto the things that have changed the way I see things, some of them are filled with tragedy, and some with energy, covering a broad range of the spectrum, and also something in between too.

THE TRAGEDY
This is something that shook me, it shook all of us who come from the eastern Himalayas, but I am not at home and the tremors did not get this far, but that is just physical right, the thing is I was shaken deep inside, from the core, I was about to step out, all prepped up, when I turn on the television and a news flashes EARTHQUAKE, EPICENTRE EXPECTED TO BE SIKKIM, and I froze right there, seriously I have never felt so numb and helpless, never ever before and I wish I do not have to face anything like that in the future too. The quake left homes broken, people devastated, I am still here for I have been unable to go home for quite sometime now, and my village has been pretty much spared from the devastation, but others have not been so fortunate, entire communities have been uprooted, years of hard work gone in seconds, a long long walk back to normalcy. I just hope we get back someday, somehow, but we will get it back in track, the people may be shaken, but they will not be broken, that is not something that Is going to happen, the people I know back home, the hardy people from deep within the Himalaya are too strong at heart to sit down in despair, they will stand from the ruins, stronger and better than before, THEY WILL, WE WILL. But what shame’s is the politics that is taking place back home in the aftermath, I only see it on networking sites, and if what I’ve read is true then the SHAME, and I put in capitals, is too hard to even contemplate, how can you do this to your own people in the times of tragedies like this, when did we stoop so low?? I have always believed that our people were made of better stuff, that the feeling of brotherhood, and unity binds our society together, in a way like the strands of a fabric are bound together in oneness. I do not know how many people feel so, but people let us get over such petty feelings of selfishness and greed, and learn to become the PEOPLE we once were, the hardy smiling people of Sikkim, the people I knew always, the people who were above caste creed ethnicity, language, and all such things that divide us into different beings, for once and all let us show that we can be better HUMANS, who can rise from the ruins, and leave such petty external influences behind.
The earthquake also had a personal impact on me, here I am so far away, from east to west, I was never at home so things are not too tragic for me that way, but now it is time I learn to take over the reins form my father, for he has strived very hard in getting us where we are today, it has been a long arduous journey, a journey that is still on. When the event took place, phone lines were jammed and for the first time in many months I prayed, something I don’t do, I’m hardly the praying type anyway, but at that moment that’s all I could do, the hour or so before my brother called to say that he had spoken to people at home and everyone was safe and fine were among the most toughest in my life, I was never so afraid, not even when they were announcing the results of my interview. The feeling of not being able to be there is something I will never forget, I’ve never been the emotional types, more of a cold person till now but at that moment, I knew it would have been so different had I been able to be with them. That is something that I wish I do not have to encounter anytime soon.

The hope and the belief that things will get better, and the people will learn to get back on their feet resides within me, and I know that every self reliant and independent Sikkimese will feel so too, so let us rise from the ruins stronger and better than ever, that is something I wish happens, something I would be so happy to see happening, THE SOONER THE BETTER.

THE IN-BETWEEN
Nothing huge about the in-between thing, for the past few months I was in Delhi attending the integration program, well the party got over a few weeks back and so now I’m on the ground, I mean literally on the ground, I am with the Hydro Division of our company, so that basically means that I’m in the business that makes power equipment that actually generate the Electricity from water, before some ANTI-DAM comments are made please note that I am in no way responsible for make the dams, neither does the company I work for make them, and I am as anti dam in Sikkim as all of you, all we do is make the power houses for the developers, so as long as they don’t build the dams we have nothing to do, that said I know that dams are bad, I’m an HYDRO-ENGINEER for god’s sake, it’s my work to know that, and all the complex situations that have developed in Sikkim are all because of our CORRUPT (in capitals) officials of the state government colluding with the people of the power developers to cheat and dupe the people of Sikkim. Also another point to be clarified is that we do not undertake civilian work, our work has nothing to do with the local populace, none at all, all we do is make our stuff here in Baroda and go and set it up wherever out customers say so, and we only build on ORDER, so we do not push to sell our wares in the market, as may seem to you when I write customers. If you need more clarifications about dams drop in a mail into my inbox or let’s catch up over coffee sometime (don’t worry I’ll pay for the coffee and snacks). That said now back to the actual IN-BETWEEN matter, you see we have many sites where we are working for our customers in Sikkim, so I so so wanted to be in site installations, since that meant a free trip back home, sitting at home in Sikkim while working for a FORTUNE 500 company, well what could be better, that’s what I thought too, so when they were assigning the departments there was only one site opening and another guy got that, just imagine my so smooth and slick dream shattering in broad daylight, but I guess sometimes you do not get what you wish for because there are better things in store for you. And that is just what happened, I got assigned to PROJECT MANAGEMENT, that’s like the direct flight to the most important department in a PROJECTS company like mine, somewhere you get to kick ass all the time, I know this because I’ve been here for 20 days now and I’ve seen so much ass kicking that I’m actually looking forward to settle down on this position, and in a few months more when I find my place here, get to do some ass kicking of my own. And also project management gets me going to sites all the time while at the same time functioning from the headquarters which means quite a bit of travel, so that means I get to travel, visit home every few months, and also work at the same time in almost perfect synchrony (that is if I can manage it) while the company pays for it, what could have been better. Now as we all know all good things have a dark back side and since my good side has a very bright front, so it has a unusually dark rear, the work in project management is viral, it never stops, there are nothing called holidays, there are nothing called timings, the work is not hard mind you, it also not like we are overburdened like in those LALA Indian companies, it’s just that when something is needed then you need to work, and get everything back on track , that’s what your job profile is and that’s what you are supposed to do, no exceptions, no questions asked. That was one cheek of the ass, now onto the other cheek. WE ARE DIRECTLY ANSWERABLE TO THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT, which basically comes down to, when the bosses want answers, you are the one that has to do the answering, he is not going to find someone else, so when YOUR ASS GETS KICKED, you be sure that it pains for quite a few months, because bigger the boss, the worse the kick, so greater the pain. That rarely happens because in our line of work, our civil partners are the slower among the lot, so usually it’s the bigger delay that gets noticed not our smaller ones. But it does happen sometime and as I already said, it hurts bad, REAL BAD.

THE BETTER PART
To the some of you who know me or have read my earlier posts, assumedly must have guessed that I’m not much of a stickler to rules or tradition, there is always something that can be done better right, well if you don’t think so, not my problem then, but I do feel that if there are two ways to doing things, and most people tale the first, given the liberty I would chose the second one, for even if I was wrong in making my choice I would atleast have scratched that itch, but when things become constrained I stick to convention, that’s the safe way out anyway. So something of making the choice type of situations presented itself to me this month, it was like I could stick to the norm and play it safe or instead chose to bend the norms and get things done with additional independence and benefits, and I chose to take the latter. We shifted to our rented place at the beginning of this month; the hotel car facility was withdrawn, so I was faced with a choice as to how I could commute the 4.5 km from my new place to work and back. Then the time came to make the decision, I have always been a fan of BIKES, not the gas guzzling types mind you, the ones I’m talking come with 1HP(human power), so it had been a few months that I had started getting paid , so I decided to get one for myself too, damn they come in all sizes, materials and PRICES too so after some research, some advice seeking and some INQUISITION, things happened and I got one of the BIKES for myself, what better way to keepmyself energised. That’s what I had thought, and so true too. So one fine day, I went up to Ahmadabad, where the bike I had chosen was available and got it. I got it on the basis of intuition because before this I had been into relatively recreational biking, and that too never in the plains, so it was a new start of sorts for me, but it’s been going well, the intentions I had in mind are getting met, although I wish I get posted to some hill project locations so that I could get on to practicing on new terrain. The bike I got for myself is a CANNONDALE TRAIL 6. The bike looks great, feels light and nimble and rides even better, and the four odd km each way go off in a jiffy, and with boring office work coming my way these days, it’s one of the most interesting things I do everyday. It’s also been good physical exercise because sit in the office all day, eat your meals, go home and sleep are the only things I do, so when imagining myself as a potbellied young office goer, was making me ridicule myself every time I thought of it, and with my working hours and lack of time for any serious activity on weekdays I seriously could not come to think of a better way to get things done for myself. Also something that people do not contemplate when they think of a BIKE, they just think it’s just a cycle so what’s about it, and to that I just say that you seriously need to grow up because the way you look at things seriously needs UPGRADING. And with the petrol prices shooting up faster than the space shuttle, I do not see why my decision does not make sense, and the gain in fitness and the savings in terms of gym fees more than justify my decision for myself. So it’s been going well with the bike, I’ve been going around a bit whenever I can, and Baroda not being such a big city it totally makes sense to cycle, and what keeps me more going than ever is the image of the POTBELLIED myself, I seriously do not want to end up that way.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.498845192801.293455.746342801&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=10150471679477802&set=a.10150178960872802.358741.746342801&type=1https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150471674842802&set=a.498845192801.293455.746342801&type=3
(these are the pictures of the bike and me with the bike please feel free to view it)

What I’ve written above is the before lunch part, I’m in the project management team and, my bosses and mentor are such busy people that they have not had the time to give me work yet, and as in I am not assigned to a project but I got to come to office, so for the last few days I’ve been coming to office with my laptop since IT has not provided me with one yet, its stocked with music, so all I do all day is report to my cubicle on time each day, keep my chair warm, drink copious of the free Nescafe available in the office, and type stuff on my laptop, like yesterday I compiled the list of email ids of persons, today I wrote this, and I need to come up for this week, and then on I guess I will finally get assigned to some project and then begin to get the work don and contribute, but I guess I should enjoy till the party lasts because if I am in the same league as my colleagues then I’m going to be real busy. Hopefully days like this keep coming from time to time so that I can have the pleasure of what’s been going on with me, or basically my own philosophy sometimes. That said there are better things like getting paid for doing nothing, that is fun too, and anyway soon when I get assigned I’m going to miss these times, anyway I guess this is going to be kind of an information overload, but deal with is once, it’s not much work to do.

P.S- maybe this is because of the GUJRAT effect but my consumption of c2o5oh and meat has gone down drastically, am surprised at myself that I’m actually managing with vegetarian food, but I will get back to my old habits once I get out of here so no worries.and im posting this from an office computer too.